Church

This is a hard blog for me to write about because I don't know, if people can put aside their scars and walls so they understand what I'm saying.  The word "church" will almost always send people into their own opinions where they can't understand or accept anything - other than someone repeating those same thoughts and opinions.  Well, I feel in my heart that I need to try and tackle this anyway.

I spent the first 50 years of my life in active membership in Baptist churches.  I was so involved in those churches that I was a teacher before I stopped being a teenager.  I was ordained a Deacon when I turned 25.  As a Deacon and "lay" minister, I was in a position to see behind the scenes as "leadership" led those churches.  You could say that I saw the image that was projected out to people as well as who actually sat behind the curtains.  As a result, I do not look up to anyone who is in a church leadership position.

When I left the last church that I attended, I left with their blessing as I sought to reach out to people who had no desire to be part of those churches and wouldn't be welcome if they did show up.  People who were forced out of those fellowships have always had a special place in my heart.  I have been treated the same way myself.

An interesting thing happened to me after I left the "traditional" church though.  I discovered a closeness to God that I had not felt in several years.  I had always known that God loved me but I had never experienced it like I started experiencing it.  As I experienced love, I started to trust God to do His part.  I gave up all of the manipulating sales pitches that church evangelism taught everyone to use. I didn't need to use them.  God would lead and I would let the overflow of love that I had experienced onto them.  I also did not need to coerce or manipulate people into behaving a certain way.  God changes people, including me, from the inside out and anything that would try to do would only hamper God.

After all of that, I get to this point.  What kind of "church", if any,  would be attractive to me?  It would not be a "traditional church".  It would not have traditional church leadership positions.

It would be a small informal gathering of friends.  All believers are connected to God the same way that Jesus was connected to God The Father as he walked upon this Earth.  We have this connection through Jesus and His sacrifice of his body.  So God would be the leader.

Our get togethers would be simply friends gathering together to encourage each other, and to love, and to spur that love forward revealing good works, that always comes from love.

To me, this is what the early believers did and this is where my heart is at.